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WHY ????

WHY ????. Are ReefTeachers & Snorkel Survey Important ? Sara Peck UH Sea Grant. Evaluation of Trampling Damage to Hawai‘i’s Coral Reefs. HUMAN USE SURVEYS. Grade School Surveys. Kahaluu Beach Park 5 th graders interview visitors

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WHY ????

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  1. WHY ???? Are ReefTeachers & Snorkel Survey Important ? Sara Peck UH Sea Grant

  2. Evaluation of Trampling Damage to Hawai‘i’s Coral Reefs

  3. HUMAN USE SURVEYS

  4. Grade School Surveys Kahaluu Beach Park • 5th graders interview visitors • Do visitors know what live coral looks like?

  5. Kahakai Kids for Corals • Letters to WHT • County Council • Mural

  6. Staining to Determine Growth Rates

  7. Linear Extension Measurements New coral growth Original coral size

  8. Kahalu‘u Experimental Site

  9. Orange Cup Coral Animal and Calcium Carbonate Home (Corallite or Calyx)

  10. How Does a Coral Polyp Grow?

  11. Symbiotic Relationship Between Plant and Animal Zooks Make Food and Oxygen for Coral Animal, Animal Gives Zooks Waste Ammonia and Carbon Dioxide

  12. Why Coral Colors ?

  13. Photoprotectant Pigment? Maybe Yes Maybe No Needs Work

  14. Petroglyph Snapping Shrimp Trails

  15. Christmas Tree Worm

  16. Damaged Coral Polyps CAUSED BY: Humans, Predators, Natural Mechanical, & Catastrophic

  17. Standing Destroys Coral Polyps

  18. Show People How to Avoid Live Coral

  19. Education & Outreach • ReefTalks bring issues to the community • Reef Teach cross-generations

  20. ReefWatchers: shallow water and tidepools

  21. YOU MAKE THE DIFFERENCE Join ReefWatchers or Become a ReefTeacher Do what you can to help support and conserve for sustainable use Hawaii’s coral reefs.

  22. Control Site

  23. Objectives • Demonstrate whether or not there are impacts to coral reefs by snorkelers. • Determine the degree of coral mortality directly related to these impacts. • Evaluate the growth rates of coral subjected to trampling. • Document rates of recovery in simulated trampling experiments. • Determine breakage strength and rates for dominant Hawaiian corals.

  24. Linear growth • Mortality rates • Damage recovery • Breakage strengths • Human use surveys

  25. K ahalu‘u Beach Park Experimental Site Control Site

  26. Colonies Split to Allow for Genetic Diversity and Provide Added Statistical Power

  27. Extensive damage can occur in sites with high human use. Continuous impact results in high mortality. Brief periods of intense trampling can significantly affect growth of corals but mortality is low once the impact has beenremoved. Shallow, calm areas that are frequented by snorkelers are the same environments inhabited by the species of corals with the lowest skeletal strength and with the highest breakage rates. Sites impacted by trampling have lower coral cover than unimpacted sites.

  28. Community Level Large scale study of growth and mortality Colony Level Experimental manipulation Fragment growth/survival/strength

  29. Moku o Lo‘e Simulated Trampling Site

  30. Stained Weighed Impacted Fragments-counted/measured Colony Level simulated trampling experiments

  31. Monitoring Efforts • ReefWatchers are trained volunteers • DAR approved protocols

  32. Education On Site • ReefTeachers • Girl Scouts • High School • Adults • Future • Approaches

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